Early in the book Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, a group of Athenian soldiers, taken prisoner during the Peloponnesian War, are made to perform Euripides’ play Medea for their captors. 

Some play the parts, and the rest are the chorus. 

They are starving, exhausted, and far from home. But when they step into the chorus, something shifts. They do not reenact the violence of the war. They’re just standing on the side, speaking calmly, giving shape to events that would otherwise feel uncontainable. 

I read the book early this year, and it’s stayed with me. Mainly because, somehow, this year too often felt like it needed a chorus.

You see, in Greek theatre, the chorus did not advance the plot. It existed to offer context and perspective to the plot. This idea kept returning to me as the year unfolded. Somehow, it is also how I have come to think about The Ken’s podcasts. 

They’re not isolated shows competing for attention but more like distinct voices responding to the same world. Each show is designed for a different way of listening and understanding. But all of them have come from questions that refused to go away.

Daybreak came from the most basic one. What matters today?

Two by Two grew out of moments when a company or idea seemed to be everywhere at once, and the instinct was to stop and ask why.

First Principles exists for when the noise recedes, and the thinking begins, usually about companies, leadership, and mental models that ultimately reveal their consequences over time.

90,000 Hours took shape around conversations about careers, workplaces, and the unease that now shadows it.

Zero Shot came from a shared uncertainty about artificial intelligence. Not what it promises, but what it is already doing.

And Make India Competitive Again stepped back to tackle structural questions about India’s economy, policy, and power.